Developed by the Korea
Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), the Engkey robots are
handled remotely by English-speaking teachers in
the Philippines. The robots sport an avatar face on a TV
display panel and are wheeled around each classroom as they speak,
read books, dance and interact with the children.

According
to KIST senior scientist Sagong Seong-Dae, cameras detect the facial
expressions of the English speaking teachers in the Philippines, who
can see and hear the students via remote, which then reflect them on
the face of the avatar.

"Well-educated,
experienced Filipino teachers are far cheaper than their counterparts
elsewhere, including South Korea," said Sagong.

Kim
Mi-Young, an official at the Daegu city education office said that
some robots may be sent to remote rural areas of South Korea shunned
by foreign English teachers. Both Kim and Sagong indicate that the
robots will be used as reinforcements. Kim added that the experiment
was not about replacing human teachers with robots.

"We
are helping upgrade a key, strategic industry and all the while
giving children more interest in what they learn."

Kim
also noted that having robots in the classroom makes the students,
especially shy ones, more active in participating.

"The
kids seemed to love it since the robots look, well, cute and
interesting. But some adults also expressed interest, saying they may
feel less nervous talking to robots than a real person," said
Kim.

The South Korean government plans to expand the program
in all 8,400 kindergarten classrooms by 2013.

"A politician stumbles over himself... Then they pick it out. They edit it. He runs the clip, and then he makes a funny face, and the whole audience has a Pavlovian response." -- Joe Scarborough on John Stewart over Jim Cramer